“All the Leaves are Brown”

Executive Report by John Reblin

Fall is in the air. The leaves are turning color, the night air is cool, but the days are warm. Another clue of fall is that it is the third season of the year with all the stories, commercials, and ads for the upcoming elections going on. It seems there is always an ad running on the TV or radio. The papers attempt to tell the story of what is going on, but they seem to be missing the important information. Hopefully, your regions are doing the research for you, bringing in local candidates from both sides of the aisle to discuss motorcycle-related issues. Ask those running where they stand on the issues that we are concerned about. What do they think about the push for electrification of vehicles? Explain going electric is not always the best choice for the user.  If the push is for electric, will there be a safe and legal fuel available for us at a reasonable cost?  Will we be able to pull into the local gas station or will we have to run to the local hardware store to buy a couple of gallon cans of fuel like you are starting to see on the shelf?

What about our fear of sharing the road with autonomous vehicles that are using the roadway as a testing venue while we are also on it with our motorcycles? It is starting to become a larger story that these vehicles do not have the ability to interact with motorcycles and do cause serious crashes, injury and death. Let’s make sure they do the testing on the track before they are available to be used on the road.

We also need to make sure that we, or the place or person that we take our motorcycle to for repair, have access to the information, tools, and parts to repair our motorcycle. It is harder now to try and find someone that is capable to look at and repair older motorcycles. I am speaking from my personal experience looking for someone capable to look at a couple little two strokes I have.  If you find someone that does this, take care of them and show your appreciation for what they do.

It is time now to go to the polls and fill in the circle, tap the button, or pull the lever and select who will help us get what we want. Make sure you either vote ahead or vote the day of the election and help democracy work.

ABATE of Wisconsin’s election season is here also, hopefully you voted for your, Regional Representative and new Board of Directors and State Officers for the next two-year term. Hopefully, you were able to meet with or talk with those running to make sure things within the organization will run smoothly. Since this is written before the election in October, I am not sure who has been elected. But if I make it to the board, I look forward to whoever is elected. It takes a commitment to this position and some work. Make sure your District Director catches up with the members in the region. He is your voice to the board and brings your ideas or concerns up for discussion.

Remember with this cooler weather, the hunters out in the woods, and farmers in the field, that the large animals are starting to move. Throw in the deer rut and changes in the weather and we are going to have issues on the road with deer motorcycle and other vehicle crashes. Remember to slow down, don’t overdrive your headlight at night and be prepared to slow down and stop. Practice those panic stops using both brakes and remember not to swerve if on a bike. Braking and swerving or turning do not mix well.  If you are a deer hunter, I hope you are very successful taking out the doe and bucks to reduce some of this deer population.

Speaking of crashes, our motorcycle fatalities are running neck and neck with last year. This is not a good thing because we are not showing a reduction in our fatality rate. We are looking at things we can do as an organization to lower these crashes.

Hopefully, I got an opportunity to talk to all of you some point at the State Meeting. It was a hectic event with lots of different things going on. Between rides and looking at all the memorabilia, there were a lot of long-time members and past officers there to share thoughts of what they saw. Thank you to all of you that came to the event, worked the event, and especially Steve, Betty, Marie, Laurie, Dawn, Hoggie, Michelle and Region 1H, for a lot of the behind-the-scenes work. All of us working together made this event special for me. Thank you to the CC Riders for your help setting up the ride to the Capitol. I am sure with deadlines and work schedules there will be lots of pictures and articles about a great time and huge impact we make in Madison!

Ride Your Own Ride,

 John